So I've been using a mac..

[Svart]

You can reset any user's password by simply booting off of the OS X Install CD/DVD. Under "Utilities" in the menubar should be a password reset utility.
you should keep in mind that this will not reset the user's keychain password.

Yep. I don't even know if it would have been as easy as what I did but I don't have the install disc anyway so it's not an option.

 

[fucanay]

[quote author="Svart"]http://coreyarnold.org/ibook/?p=20

SORRY I forgot the link!!

I found out that if I PUSHED on the IC like the instructions said, the computer would turn off. If i left it on for more than 10 minutes it would lock up too. Now that the IC and surrounding parts are reflowed, it ran for 12 hours yesterday and was still working great.[/quote]

Mine usually runs for hours, sometimes days, at a time. Then it would have that problem. But it just pisses me off so much that I opened it up and went at it like this guy does.

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/tips/iBookG4_vreg_repair/ibookG4_vreg_repair.html

It's a bit more hardcore than just reflowing the solder because you actually scrape away a bit of the solder mask next to the pin and bridge it over there as well. I did this on Pin 1 and 28. Hopefully it'll prove to be stronger than those little legs just sitting on top of the board.

I guess it worked because I'm on my couch writing this message on the iBook. I also took out the little rubber thing I had put in there before. Hopefully it won't need anything else.

And for some reason it feels like it's running cooler after the repair, which doesn't make much sense to me, but time will tell.

Man, DIY computer mainboard repair, that's craziness to me.

Matt

 

[Svart]

I didn't actually see the broken solder joint but I reflowed it all anyway since I knew it was that IC.

It's still running just fine. We'll see how long it lasts.

:thumb:

 

[kazper]

I had a G3 that had a similar problem, but it was the GPU. I said uncle and sold it for almost what I paid or it in parts.

 

[Scodiddly]

Ethan,

What shortcuts are you using? The Mac applications typically do have all the usual shortcuts, like Splat-S for save and such. What I like about Windows is that you can tap Alt and get right into the menu bar, and scroll to whatever command you want. I'd love to be able to do that on the Mac, but so far haven't found a way to do it.

 

[valvehead]

[quote author="Mbira"]I HATE not having right-click. I know people say "the Macs can ave a right-click mouse" well my wife has the fancy mac mouse with right click and it totally sucks. Trying to correct a misspelled word with that thing revolves between laughable and infuriating.[/quote]
I agree that Apple's own mice are terrible. I use a Logitech MX Revolution and a VX Nano with my MBP. Together with SteerMouse I can configure the buttons to do anything I want. I can even set different actions for different applications. The one-button mouse is a thing of the past on Macs. I have yet to find a Windows utility that works as well as SteerMouse; Logitech's own Setpoint drivers are very buggy.

Also, the multi-touch trackpad on the new MBP is great. With MultiClutch I get the same freedom of configuration that SteerMouse has for the mouse. I also find that the two-finger secondary click is a lot easier than having to reach for the right button on PC laptops.

I've been using PCs since the 8088 and Apples since the IIe. I like both platforms, but lately poorly coded drivers are making me sick of Windows. This is the first Mac that I've actually owned, and I'm really beginning to enjoy how well things just work in Leopard. I could spend hours tweaking (like I had to with XP) to get everything to run smoothly, but with OSX I don't have to. It just works great out of the box.

I'm coming to a crossroads now. I have a lot of software that is Windows-only. Part of me wants to upgrade those programs while the other part wants to seek out Mac programs. Fortunately Cubase is cross-platform so that's one less to worry about.


Scodiddly, I can't believe I've never heard anyone call it the "splat" key before. What do you call (what used to be) the Apple key? Chomp? :grin:

 

[Svart]

ok so my mac has started freezing again..

I've reflowed just about everything that I can reflow and even thinking about trying to reflow the BGAs. nothing has made it worse or better but I can still flex the board slightly and cause it to freeze..

uggh. I've read nothing but "1 year old mac freezing, apple says there is no design flaw so cough up 300$ for a new motherboard sucker" posts all over the internet. Some reflowed an IC and got it working, some used shims. That IC was the first thing I did and it seemed to work for 3 days.

I think there really is a fatal flaw somewhere in the design but I think it's a popped via, not a solder joint.

I've been monitoring the power rails for strangeness when I flex the board but I don't see anything. I think it's going to be a signal line of some sorts..

 

[fucanay]

It's possible that some all models have the problem with that chip and that some models have an additional problem. Ever since I scraped the solder mask off of the board and added solder to both pins 1 and 28, I have had no freezes. For the record mine is the original 800mhz G4 from October 2003.

Matt

 

[Svart]

my mac is a 1G g4. I have no idea when it was made.

So I went from booting some of the time to the point where all I got was the blue screen after the apple logo after reflowing a lot of parts on the PCB. I remember reading that someone thought that the g4 also had the video processor solder-ball issue as well although it's less well known. From the looks of the solder around a lot of the parts, I can believe that there might be a bad ball somewhere on the chip. I pressed down hard on the ATI IC and proceeded to boot. It booted all the way into the OS! I let off the IC and it died immediately...

So I did the only thing I know how to do in cases like this.. I went to the extreme. no guts, no glory right?

I found my copper tape and made a little box around the ATI chip and broke out the heatgun. The air pencil won't do for something like this..

I put some solder paste on the top of the IC to see when it was all ready to flow and I put a ton of rosin under the IC, at least until it flowed out the other side.

I proceeded to roast the hell out of the little bugger..

After the solder on top of the IC melted I kept the heat on for 20 more seconds, at least until the rosin boiled away.

I let it cool down for a few minutes and booted the thing up.

It booted all the way up! It all overheated after a few minutes because I didn't have the heatsinks on but I reassembled the unit and its been running for about an hour now with no issues.

I also couldn't find a place on the PCB that I could press that would make the unit die like before.

So maybe these do have the same GPU ball issues as the G3s..

Only time will tell. I seriously hope I don't have to take this thing apart again..





:roll:

 

[fucanay]

I wonder if this is a solder quality issue. I mean, this thing does get pretty hot from time to time. But it shouldn't be enough to alter the strength of the solder. The mix of the different metals makes for different melting points, right? Could be a manufacturing issue rather than a design issue.

Either way, good job on fixing it. I'm scared to do anymore than I did and might need a new one when this one goes down for the count. Mine is almost 5 years old now, so I'm not sweating it too much.

Matt

 

[Svart]

if worse comes to worst, I can give yours a roasting too! The G3s seem easier because you don't have to take out all of the heatsinking to get to the GPU.

So far the Mac is still running good. I've rebooted a few times too, to see if it would come back up and so far, so good.

 

[Svart]

Still going strong!

I think I may have it licked.

We'll see.

 

[fucanay]

Mine hasn't gone down either, since I soldered the vreg chip. Looks like a couple of more iBooks got to stay alive a little longer than they were supposed to.


:grin: :grin:

Matt